Another card reader question

[vawitt]

Hi, everyone. I have a built-in card reader in my computer. With my flash drives, EHD and other USB-connected peripherals, I'm religious about using the "safely remove hardware" icon before removing USB connected devices.

If I "safely remove" my card reader before popping out the memory card, the computer won't recognize the reader until I reboot.

Is it safe to remove a memory card from a built-in reader without using "safely remove"?

(I love these new subforums...great idea!!)

~Val in CHILLY IL

[efarnstrom]

I just insert and take out the card with no problem. The other method I use if I have a flash drive. Saying that, however, my DGD and DGS both use flash drives on my computer, and I don't think they know anything about the safely remove hardware option!

[vawitt]

Before I knew about "safely remove", I had a flash drive quit working (quit being recognized). Don't know if it can be attributed to my practice of just yanking it out...but I subsequently have read that NOT using "safely remove" can impair the USB port more than the flash drive itself.

Moral of story: back up your flash drive data, too.

[Codebreaker]

With XP this is less of a problem. I frequently pull out memory cards/readers and usb keys and never have a problem. This is not the case with external USB hard drives and it's best to close them down correctly.

Colin